From the Children's Hospital Colorado, Aurora, CO.
University of New Mexico Hospital, Albuquerque, NM.
Pediatr Emerg Care. 2024 Dec 1;40(12):904-909. doi: 10.1097/PEC.0000000000003262. Epub 2024 Aug 12.
In the United States, cannabis is legal for adult recreational use in 24 states and Washington, DC. Unintentional pediatric cannabis exposures have increased in many states following legalization.We evaluated the relationship between recreational cannabis legalization and the rates of unintentional pediatric exposures in a neighboring state that had not undergone legalization.
We obtained cannabis exposure cases for children 0-12 years from the New Mexico Poison and Drug Information Center electronic database. Only deidentified patient data from closed-case exposure encounters were abstracted. Data were grouped as precommercial and postcommercial availability in neighboring Colorado, demarcated by January 2014. We coded cannabis products as edible, not edible, or unknown. For bivariable comparisons, we used odds ratios, risk ratio, χ 2 test, and Wilcoxon rank sum test. We chose a type 1 error rate of 0.05 to determine significance.
There were 269 exposures over 24 years of calls. Following neighboring legalization, the median number of exposures per year increased from 4 (interquartile range 2, 5) to 24.5 (16.5, 34), the median age increased from 1.9 to 3.0 ( P = 0.007), and the relative risk of the exposure involving edible products was double (relative risk = 2.0, 95% confidence interval = 1.6, 2.6). The severity of the exposures' medical effects also increased ( P = 0.008).
The number, severity, and type of pediatric cannabis exposures in New Mexico changed after neighboring recreational cannabis legalization. States neighboring those undergoing cannabis legalization should be prepared to respond to increased acute exposures in children.
在美国，24 个州和华盛顿特区将大麻合法化供成人娱乐使用。在许多州，合法化后，儿童非故意接触大麻的情况有所增加。我们评估了在一个尚未合法化的相邻州，娱乐用大麻合法化与儿童非故意接触率之间的关系。
我们从新墨西哥毒物和药物信息中心电子数据库中获取了 0-12 岁儿童的大麻暴露病例。仅从封闭病例暴露接触中提取无身份识别的患者数据。数据按临近科罗拉多州的商业前和商业后可用性分组，以 2014 年 1 月为界。我们将大麻产品编码为可食用、不可食用或未知。对于双变量比较，我们使用比值比、风险比、χ 2 检验和 Wilcoxon 秩和检验。我们选择 0.05 的Ⅰ类错误率来确定显著性。
在 24 年的呼叫中，有 269 次暴露。在临近地区合法化后，每年暴露的中位数从 4 次（四分位距 2，5）增加到 24.5 次（16.5，34），中位数年龄从 1.9 岁增加到 3.0 岁（P = 0.007），涉及可食用产品的暴露的相对风险增加了一倍（相对风险=2.0，95%置信区间=1.6，2.6）。暴露的医疗效果的严重程度也增加了（P = 0.008）。
在临近地区娱乐用大麻合法化后，新墨西哥州的儿童大麻暴露的数量、严重程度和类型发生了变化。正在进行大麻合法化的州应该为儿童急性暴露增加做好准备。
